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NAIROBI— Initial tests on a vast aquifer found in Kenya's drought-wracked Turkana region show the water is too salty to drink. The 2013 discovery of underground lakes in Kenya’s arid region in Turkana brought hope to some of the 135,000 people in need of food assistance there. Satellite imagery show the two aquifers were the size of the U.S. state of Delaware. Two years later, hope is quickly fading as the first test results from Lotikipi - the largest aquifer which is close to Kenya's border with South Sudan - show the water is too salty to drink.

Addis Ababa is to get another world class hospitality image before the end of the year when the AU Grand Hotel managed by Westin Hotels and Resorts inaugurates its seven star hotel in the African Union (AU) compound. The multibillion birr investment owned by the billionaire Sheik Mohamed Hussein al Amoudi will be inaugurated before the coming European Christmas, according to an insider source.

(CNN)It's called the Grand Renaissance Dam -- and the clue is in the name.With some 8,500 laborers working around the clock on its construction, the imposingly-named dam is surely one of Africa's most ambitious infrastructure projects, reaffirming Ethiopia's ambitions of becoming a big regional player and a major exporter of power..

Kingsley Ighobor and Busani Bafana IT is an audacious $4.8 billion (R56bn) project undertaken by one of the world’s poorest countries. At the construction site in the Benishangul region of Ethiopia near the Sudanese border, some 8 500 workers are labouring tirelessly every day to build the gigantic Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. When completed in 2017, the dam will generate 6 000MW of electricity for domestic consumption and export.On the surface, the 170m-tall dam – Africa’s biggest hydropower project – belies Ethiopia’s financial muscle. The gross domestic product (GDP) per capita in Ethiopia is only $475. The late prime minister Meles Zenawi, who laid the foundation stone in 2011, said the dam would be built without begging for money from donors. Since then, construction has progressed steadily using money from local taxes, donations and government bonds. Ethiopians abroad and at home contributed the first $350 million, with government workers contributing amounts equivalent to a month of their salaries.

ADDIS ABABA—Ethiopian greenfield brewer Habesha, majority-owned by Dutch brewer Bavaria NV, said it plans to start selling beer in the second quarter of this year to tap rising domestic demand that has attracted global brands.Bavaria NV is the latest beer maker lured by Ethiopia's expanding middle class over the last five years and will compete with breweries owned by Heineken and Diageo..